ZaTab: ZaReason's Open Tablet

Android Setup

If you have used any Android device in the past, the initial setup on
first boot will be familiar. Input your Google credentials, connect
to a network, and you're rolling. You have the option to download and
install previous Android apps you have used on any other synced devices
you may have, and your bookmarks as well if you are a Google Chrome user.
The device ships with a minimal set of Android apps: Apollo Media Player,
Android Web Browser, Calculator, Calendar, Email, Camera, Gallery,
Clock, DSPManager, Movie Studio, People (Address Book), ROM Manager,
Superuser, Terminal Emulator and the Android Settings app. You won't find
any preloaded crapware, no nearly useless game demos and no irremovable
commercial apps. The Google Play store installs upon syncing your Google
account, so you have access to the the largest selection of Android apps
from the start.

The Apps

Most of the apps I installed work flawlessly. I've had a blast streaming
TED Talks on the ZaTab with TED's official Android app. The video is
high-quality and plays flawlessly on the ZaTab. Google's Gmail app is
perfect for the tablet with split views for folders and messages.
The generic e-mail app works in much the same way with support for
Exchange, IMAP and POP. The Plume Twitter client is a pleasure to use
on the big screen. Amazon's Kindle app looks great as well with easily
configurable font sizes and text colors from which to choose. Linux
Journal's
own app looks good on the ZaTab, with text-mode rendering sharp text. I
was able to connect to my employer's Cisco VPN using Cisco's Anyconnect
for rooted Android devices. Earl, from ZaReason, was kind enough to
provide a tun.ko tun module for the ZaTab when asked in the #zareason
IRC chat room on Freenode. This was necessary for the Anyconnect client
as it uses a tun kernel module to facilitate the VPN connection. Earl
tells me that this module will be preloaded on the ZaTab upon official
release, and it may be shipping on ZaTabs as you read this.

There were
a few apps that just would not play nice with the ZaTab. Netflix, for
example: the app's interface worked fine but the app would stall when
trying to stream video. Twitter's home-grown client was not available
in the store. It must look for certain "approved" device profiles and
the ZaTab may not be one of them.

The Hardware in Use

The 9.7" 1024x768 in-plane-switching capacitive touchscreen is bright
with brilliant color and has an insane viewing angle. You can tilt this
thing nearly 90 degrees in any direction and maintain
view-ability. I
find the screen size ideal for a personal touchscreen device. Text is
sharp, of reasonable size, and movies are a joy to watch.

Both cameras
are unimpressive. Photos taken with the main, rear-facing camera are
grainy and quite dark indoors because there is no flash. The front-facing
camera is adequate for low-resolution video chats, but it is also quite
grainy.

Battery life on the other hand is fantastic. You can use the
ZaTab heavily all day long without worrying about power. For example,
the day after the ZaTab arrived, after a full charge, I spent lots of
time downloading and installing apps, watching TED videos, listening
to streaming music via Google Music, reading via the Kindle app and
exploring the unit via the terminal emulator. After 15 hours of mostly
continuous use, I had 40% charge remaining.

The Interface

The ZaTab comfortably runs Android ICS. The animated UI transitions and
elements are smooth, and there is plenty of processing power for most apps
despite the tablet being a single-core unit. Switching apps using the
Recent Applications menu makes multitasking simple. Notifications are
unobtrusive, and apps that are notifying can be opened directly from the
notification widget. Plenty of informative widgets are available
if you like your home screen more dashboard than application launcher.

Conclusion

The ZaTab is the most open tablet out there, and it should be on your
shopping list if you're looking for a tablet designed with end-user
freedom in mind. This is the ideal device for Android developers or Linux
developers looking to shoehorn a traditional Linux distribution onto
a tablet. There is a good chance you will see a full Linux distro
running on the ZaTab in the future. ZaTabs are in the hands of KDE and
Edubuntu developers, and surely on the wish lists of many other free
software developers out there. It runs most Android apps flawlessly—oh,
and did I say it was rooted out of the box? You don't have to be a hacker
to enjoy this tablet either, with plenty of storage and access to Google's
Play Store and Amazon's Kindle books, it makes a great media device. As I'm
wrapping up this review in early July, the ZaTab has yet to see official
release. Earl at ZaReason tells me there is still one minor software bug
to squash before the ZaTab is officially launched—debugging the HDMI
output driver to be specific. For the most up-to-date information on
when the ZaTab will be shipping, to pre-order one, or to order a developer
unit sans OS, visit the ZaReason Shop: http://zareason.com/shop/zatab.html.

With those specs? Single core from what I can find of the A10. Low end Mali GPU. 1 GB of RAM? ouch Ports, good. Battery size, good. This is a budget spec'd tablet. I like the open nature of the offer, but it's not worth 350 bucks. This is a Nexus 7/Fire pricepoint device. performance will be less than the N7 and Fire HD but adds the ports and storage upgrade options. But only 32GB supported with 64GB cards becoming very affordable? Another fail. Not a bad deal if it was a couple of hundred bucks. With those specs 150-200 is the range.

Come ON, folks: it's understandable when you're dealing with a phone that you have limited space for expansion, but a *tablet* has way more space, and there is no reasonable excuse not to include a *FULL SIZE* SD/MMC slot. I would like to use SD for *collections* of files (perhaps different projects, different sets of audio/video, etc,), but using MicroSD is just plain unusable in that respect simply because of the miniscule sixe and easy lose-ability of teh storage medium. I'm not asking for PCMCIA, floppy diisk or even CF, but something that you have at least SOME chance of finding when it drops on the floor or falls inside your carrying satchel would be quite appreciated.

Toshiba and Sony use full side SD in their 10" tablets, iirc. Toshiba even included a full size USB port in their Thrive, but went with micro only on the Excite. Note that there are two 10" Excites out there, and the 10LE do not have the full size SD slot.

I have bought ZeniThink A71 (7'', A9) tablet directly from China for $100. It is rooted as well, has similar specification and I can't complain about build quality. The larger C92 (10'') is for $160. Isn't $350 little bit to much?